8664 road plan could include tolls

Proponents speak to House panel

Feb. 5, 2008

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FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Leaders of the "8664" movement said yesterday that tolls could be part of paying for a plan to raze a stretch of Interstate 64 in downtown Louisville and reroute some traffic on a new eastern Jefferson County bridge.

Louisville businessmen Tyler Allen and J.C. Stites testified before a House transportation panel that their alternative would cost about half what the $4.1 billion Ohio River Bridges Project would and could be built faster than the federally approved plan.

Federal funding is expected to be scarce for "mega" road and bridge projects costing $1 billion or more. Rep. Hubert Collins, D-Wittensville, said tolls are likely to be part of financing those ventures.

A traffic engineer's November study of 8664 did not evaluate tolls, but Allen and Stites acknowledged that tolls may have to be part of their plan.

"If the bridges need to be tolled, then so be it to get this project completed," Stites told lawmakers during a meeting of the House budget review subcommittee on transportation.

In an interview after the meeting, Allen agreed with Stites, and added that any tolls in their plan would be cheaper than tolls used to pay for the Ohio River Bridges Project, which includes two bridges. Allen added that he was not endorsing tolls as a funding source.

The 8664 vision -- whose name comes from the slang "86," meaning get rid of -- calls for turning a stretch of I-64 along Louisville's waterfront into a four-lane, surface-level parkway. Traffic now taking the interstate through downtown would be rerouted over a bridge between eastern Jefferson County and Utica, Ind., to bypass the city.

The plan also calls for a reconfigured Spaghetti Junction, where I-64, I-65 and I-71 meet near downtown.

A consultant hired by 8664 says the alternative would cost $2.2 billion, although critics say that figure is unrealistic.

Rep. Don Pasley, D-Winchester, the subcommittee chairman, said ideas like 8664 are difficult to incorporate into existing projects such as the bridges, and said he wished it had been proposed 20 years ago.

Pasley also said he's concerned that changing the bridges plan could lead the federal government to withhold some of its funding. In addition, he said that the Federal Highway Administration has told him that a new environmental study could be needed for "diversions that cause environmental impacts," such as building only an eastern bridge.

"It could take 10 years," Pasley said after the meeting.

The Build the Bridges Coalition, a group that includes mayors of Louisville, Bowling Green and Elizabethtown and various business and labor interests, also says that 8664 would require additional environmental work.

But 8664 supporters dispute that claim. Spokesman Joe Burgan said that even if there's a change to the bridges project, 8664 construction would meet the standards of the National Environmental Policy Act and would not need additional studies.

Debate on Senate floor

Meanwhile on the Senate floor yesterday, the bridges issue triggered a brief but spirited debate after Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, D-Louisville, filed amendments to Senate President David Williams' bill to allow the creation of local transportation authorities, which could establish tolls to pay for large construction projects.

One of the amendments would clarify that any such authority could place tolls only on new projects, not existing roads or bridges.

Williams, R-Burkesville, replied that Gov. Steve Beshear's administration first must propose how it wants to fund the bridges, and said Shaughnessy's amendment was an attempt to politicize the issue. "We shouldn't be drawn into doing floor amendments and other things that always are trying to play to the folks at home on this issue," he said.

But Shaughnessy said he filed the amendment to try to ease the concerns of constituents who think tolls could be placed on existing Ohio River bridges.

"Tolls goes on new construction, taxes goes on existing bridges," he said.

Jeffersonville urges help

Last night in Indiana, the Jeffersonville City Council unanimously passed a resolution asking Indiana's congressional delegation, Gov. Mitch Daniels and state representatives to look for ways to help Kentucky pay its share of the Ohio River Bridges Project to prevent tolls from being levied.